The Sudbury Wolves were in Ottawa Sunday afternoon to wrap up their Eastern Conference road trip against the 67s.
Despite a slow start and plenty of back-and-forth action with the 67s, the Wolves came on strong the second and third to clinch a 7-5 victory.
The opening period saw plenty of up-and-down hockey between the Wolves and 67s, however, it was the 67s that were first to get on the board.
Ben Evans went top shelf over Jake McGrath to give the 67s the lead. The 67s led shots on goal 14-13 after 20 minutes.
The 67s extended their lead to 2-0 41 seconds into the second period on a power-play goal by Travis Barron. However, Dmitry Sokolov put the Wolves on the board 18 seconds later to cut the lead in half.
The Wolves would mount their comeback as Shane Bulitka scored on a breakaway just over the midway point of the period to tie the game up at two apiece.
Patrick Sanvido scored from the point three minutes later to give the Wolves their first lead of the game. Artur Tyanulin scored on the power play to tie the game up at 3. Ryan Valentini finished off a nice play from Sokolov and David Levin to get the lead back heading out of the second. Shots on goal after two periods was 28-26 in favour of the 67s.
In the third, the 67s scored two quick ones right off the hop to take a 5-4 lead over the Wolves.
The game continued its back-and-forth play as Michael Pezzetta scored to tie things back up at 5. Pezzetta was awarded a short-handed penalty shot near the midway point of the period and made no mistake as he beat the 67s' goaltender to take a 6-5 lead. Sokolov scored a beauty goal off his backhand to extend the Wolves lead to 7-5.
The Wolves will travel to Sault Ste. Marie on Wednesday to battle the Greyhounds in hopes of clinching the Bell Challenge Cup at 7:07 p.m. They will return to action at home on Friday night when they host the North Bay Battalion at 7 p.m. Tickets are on sale now at the Sudbury Arena Box Office.
